Detroit Tigers Are Now Rolling
By: Eric Thomas
After his start on Monday night, Justin Verlander was asked if he was impatient to get back on the mound after two lackluster recent starts. "No, not impatient," he said, standing in front of his locker. "Just a little bit angry."
The balance of anger was transferred into the entire Yankee lineup, as they walked back to the visiting dugout shaking their heads, done and dusted by the unquestioned best pitcher in baseball. If bad starts from JV turns into performances like this, I suppose it's all worth it. Verlander gave up some runs but otherwise he seared one of the best lineups in baseball. He was dialed in on the mound, and the crowd felt it. Verlander was on. His throwing motion snapped like a liquid whip. The murmurs of JV's return to earth after his last two starts silenced by mowing down the New York Yankees.
What a difference a month makes. Even a week ago it felt like the Tigers were stumbling back into cobwebby ineptitude. That road trip felt more like a viking funeral. Many fans were blinking back memories, trying to suppress the PTSD nightmares of May and early June. Critics of Jim Leyland started to clear their throats and sing scales preparing their chorus of 'fire the skipper' calls.
Those calls might still come, but the fans who watch every day laugh them off now. The Tigers are rolling. Unlike the end of July they aren't winning on the backs of a heretofore unheard of minor league call-up. The Tigers are winning with the big men. Miguel Cabrera has dropped a phone book sized argument for MVP. Prince Fielder has looked like the coveted off-season commodity that the Tigers signed him to be. The outfield fences are getting scuffed like the front wall of a racquetball court and happy fans file out of Comerica with pockets full of seamed souvenirs.
Alright, maybe I'm getting carried away. If I seem giddy its only because I watched every game in the first half, and it wasn't pretty. The Tigers were a festival of errors with the consistency of a Dali painting. They were sloppier than Snooki. Their games were more disappointing than finding out Nickleback is your halftime show. Kurt Vonnegut called them absurd.
But the Tigers have come alive. If Sanchez can pitch like he did on Friday, the Tigers have a lot to be excited about. Doug Fister was a beast on Saturday. A porous Scherzer performance that usually guarantees an L turned out to be the best win of the season. There was a point last year where the Tigers rose up and became better than the sum of their parts and the team is starting to do that now.
The difference is that the Tigers are a much better team than they were last year. They have better starting pitching, a better bullpen, a second baseman (I know, right?!) a third baseman, and Prince Fielder. In the past couple of days the Tigers went from looking like a team that was a year away to being a team that can win now. The Tigers are starting to look like the team that can compete with the Rangers and the Angels. The sweep against Cleveland was obviously against a bad team, but the Tribe threw the book at the Tigers on Sunday and they still lost.
What does this add up to? Beats me. They always say you can't buy bats, you have to buy defense, but it certainly helps when the bats start heating up at exactly the right time. It doesn't even matter if Delmon Young is an instant out. Omar Infante is getting awfully cozy and the defense has gotten much better with his presence. This could add up to a deep run into the playoffs. When the Tigers met the Rangers early in the year, they didn't look like they could step up and punch on that level. Now it's starting to feel like they absolutely can. The Tigers, when they signed Price Fielder, bought into the heavyweight class.
Nice to see they are finally start to punch like they belong.
